GARY CHEUNG, TONY CHEUNG AND SHIRLEY ZHAO
PUBLISHED : Friday, 01 January, 2016, 1:42am
UPDATED : Friday, 01 January, 2016, 2:25am
Arthur Li arrives at the University of Hong Kong while an alumni group stages a protest rally outside the meeting venue. Photo: SCMP Pictures
The chemistry between Arthur Li Kwok-cheung and University of Hong Kong vice-chancellor Professor Peter Mathieson is in the limelight following Li’s appointment as the university council chairman.
In a statement issued yesterday, Mathieson and the university’s senior management team said they were “pleased that the chairmanship of the council has been announced”.
“We are looking forward to working closely with Professor Arthur Li to further the best interests of the University,” the statement said.
Mathieson’s response was in stark contrast to his predecessor Professor Lap-Chee Tsui’s words of appreciation for Dr Leong Che-hung when he was appointed as council chairman in 2009.
At that time, Tsui said: “Given Dr Leong’s life-long ties with the university and eminent record of service to the community and to academia, I believe the chancellor [the chief executive] has appointed a highly respected leader to be the next council chairman.”
Mathieson stood by liberal scholar Johannes Chan Man-mun shortly before the university council blocked him from taking up the post of pro-vice-chancellor, according to leaked recordings of a closed-door meeting of the council in September.
Chan’s appointment was opposed by some council members, including Li who criticised him for not having a doctorate degree.
In November, Mathieson told the media that the university would offer assistance to students who were prosecuted.
He was responding to Li’s request, believed to be made at the council meeting in August, for legal action to be pursued against students who stormed a previous meeting and for the university to gather evidence of criminalities,
Dr William Cheung Sing-wai, HKU Academic Staff Association chairman, said he was worried about the relationship between Li and Mathieson.
“According to leaked recordings of the council meetings, Mathieson was very supportive of the search committee’s recommendation than Chan should be appointed pro-vice-chancellor, while Li opposed it. Now Li is the chairman,” Cheung said.
He said he expected Mathieson, whose tenure expires in 2019, would not resign in the middle of his term, but doubted if he would stay another term if the situation did not improve.
Li’s critics said his taking over the council would deepen students’ and staff’s distrust of the council and make them less cooperative, turning the university into an ungovernable war zone.
“His appointment is a great blow to not only HKU but also the whole Hong Kong society,” said Eric Cheung Tat-ming, an HKU principal law lecturer.
Cheung said a close friend of his who had met Li on many social occasions told him that the former education minister “completely detests HKU”.
“I was really shocked to hear this but I trust this person a lot and the person is sympathetic to the pro-establishment camp,” said Cheung.
Cheung expected Li’s elevated position would lead to “endless conflicts” in the university.
Li was appointed as an HKU council member in March by Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, who has been likened to Li for his style which is seen as uncompromising and heavy handed.
But Professor Lau Siu-kai, Li’s former colleague at Chinese University, said he did not believe Li would undermine HKU’s academic freedom.
He said judging from Li’s credentials, it was difficult to argue that he was not qualified to be the council chairman.
But he expected Li, one of the founding members of CUHK’s faculty of medicine, to have a hard time with some HKU staff .
“Given Li’s political orientation, it would be unavoidable that he would clash with some liberal-minded staff at HKU,” said Lau.
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/1896910/chemistry-vice-chancellor-spotlight
